Either Pro-Sodomy Jeb Bush Is Toast in 2016 or the GOP is

McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed has written a devastating exposé of the brain trust Jeb Bush has gathered around himself in his campaign for the GOP nomination.

In a word, if personnel is policy, Jeb is telling the pro-family community to drop dead.

Coppins points out that virtually every key slot on Bush’s campaign team – campaign manager, chief strategist, communications director, adviser – has been filled by an ardent proponent of sodomy-based “marriage” and special rights based entirely on aberrant sexual behavior.

When Bush officially launches his presidential bid later this year, he will likely do so with a campaign manager who has urged the Republican Party to adopt a pro-gay agenda; a chief strategist who signed a Supreme Court amicus brief arguing for marriage equality in California; a longtime adviser who once encouraged her minister to stick to his guns in preaching equality for same-sex couples; and a communications director who is openly gay.

To an extent that would have been unthinkable in past elections, one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination has stocked his inner circle with advisers who are vocal proponents of gay rights. And while the Bush camp says his platform will not be shaped by his lieutenants’ personal beliefs, many in the monied, moderate, corporate wing of the GOP — including pragmatic donors, secular politicos, and other members of the establishment — are cheering the early hires as a sign that Bush will position himself as the gay-friendly Republican in the 2016 field.

In addition to Kochel, who is expected to run the national campaign, Bush has hired Tim Miller, a star communications and research operative who is gay; longtime aide Sally Bradshaw, whose support for her pro-gay preacher recently showed up in a New York Times profile ; and Mike Murphy, the veteran GOP consultant who joined other prominent Republicans in signing a 2013 brief calling on the Supreme Court to overturn California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8. What makes this band of operatives unique is not just that they support gay rights, but that many have made it their mission in the past to bring the party along with them.

With his team in place, Bush has attracted a wave of early support from many of the party’s most prominent gay rights advocates. Ken Mehlman, the former Republican National Committee chair who authored the Prop. 8 brief, has reportedly been introducing Bush to donors. At least a dozen of the brief’s 80 signatories have either endorsed him, donated to him, or gone to work for him. Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security secretary who regularly preaches LGBT inclusion to his fellow Republicans, has declared himself an enthusiastic Bush-backer.

Jeb correctly wrote in 1994, “[Should] sodomy be elevated to the same constitutional status as race and religion? My answer is No.”

Of course, it is impossible for the definition of marriage or the immorality of sodomy to “evolve.” Marriage has not evolved any more than the universe or life itself. It’s definition has been fixed by God since the dawn of time. It was then, is now, and forever will be the union of one man and one woman. God’s moral opinion of homosexual conduct has never changed and never will. It will be a sexual perversion – that is, a perversion of his design for human sexuality – until the end of time.

For a Republican to mess with that is to mess with God, the original purpose of the Republican Party, and the conservative base.

The GOP was founded for two reasons: to preserve natural marriage and fight the institution of slavery. Changing the definition of marriage was, to the Republican forefathers, a “relic of barbarism.” The Republican Party platform was right then and it is right now.

If Bush leads the party away from a robust defense of marriage as God designed it and defined it, the Republican Party will have lost its reason to exist. Social conservatives will abandon the party so fast it’ll make your eyes water.

That great sucking sound you will hear will be created by the rushing wind of pro-family Republicans stampeding for the exits. They will be gone and will never return. The GOP will be spent as a political force. It’ll have its precious big tent with nobody inside.

It’s time for social conservatives to armor up. Jeb Bush has thrown down the gauntlet. If conservatives want to save their party, and more importantly save America, step one is stopping Jeb Bush dead in his tracks.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

Bryan Fischer is the Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association, where he provides expertise on a range of public policy topics. Described by the New York Times as a "talk-radio natural," he hosts the "Focal Point" radio program on AFR Talk,which airs live on weekdays from 1-3 p.m. Central on American Family Radio's nationwide talk network of 125 stations.
A graduate of Stanford University and Dallas Theological Seminary, Bryan pastored in Idaho for 25 years, during which time he served for one session as the chaplain of the Idaho state senate. He founded the Idaho Values Alliance in 2005, and is a co-author of Idaho's marriage amendment. He has been with AFA since 2009.
In his role as a spokesman for AFA, he has been featured on media outlets such as Fox News, CBS News, NBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, Russia Today television and the Associated Press, has been a frequent guest on talk radio to discuss cultural and religious issues. He has been profiled in publications such as the New York Times, Newsweek, the New Yorker, and BuzzFeed. He has been married to his bride, Debbie, since 1976, and they have two grown children.

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